>> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org. >> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and politico, reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> what would you say to some of your supporters, your donors, who are concerned that this could be slipping away? >> i am pleased with some polls, less so with other polls, but at this stage, polls go up, polls go down. >> this week on "inside washington," mitt romney's rough

ride. the fight for ohio. >> you may have noticed that there is an election in ohio. >> we are going to win. >> the foreign policy debate. >> i was certain and continue to be certain that there will be bombs on the road. >> "bumps in the road"? we had an ambassador assassinated. >> rare bipartisan agreement. >> did you guys watch the packers game last night? i mean, give me a break. it is time to get the real refs. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> it has been a rough couple of weeks for mitt romney. the president has opened up leads and a battleground states like ohio, wisconsin, iowa,

colorado. you would of thought that the assassination of an american ambassador in libya, attacks on embassies elsewhere in the middle east, would have offered mitt romney a golden opportunity to reframe the debate, but he cannot get their. politico began a piece on friday telling us with the problem is not -- it is not clint eastwood and the empty chair, or media bias, or distorted polls. politico says idt is mitt. >> wow. quite a guy, isn't it? paul ryan. >> royan! >> what a second, romney-ryan, romney-ryan, romney-ryan. >> oh, sweet jesus. >> joe scarborough and mika brzezinski on "morning show."

slowly and reluctantly, those who have worked for mitt romney are concluding that he is just not a good political candidate. is that fair, mark? >> it is fair. you want to go back to the numbers. wherever mitt romney goes, his unfavorable number goes up. in florida in, he was at 35% unfavorable personally. now he is at 48% unfavorable. ohio, 34%, now 49%. it is a problem. that has just been the reverse with obama. what do you do? you could read the rose garden strategy. mitt it does not have a rose garden. >> charles, you write that "

romney's and willingness to go big, to go for the larger argument, is simply astonishing ." >> it was a great opening, politically. american embassies of flame, ambassador being killed, an american riots in tunisia -- that is the collapse of a four- year policy on the middle east. rather than make a serious speech connecting the dots and talking about exactly that, the collapse of the policy, the result of a naive approach to tyrants in the region, he does one drive by shot, which was accurate but only one, and then he gives a speech to the clinton global initiative about reforming foreign aid, for god's sake. there was a huge opportunity missed. the core problem is this un willingness to go large, to go big. he seems reluctant to do it. >> nina?

>> i will not take on charles on the merits of the arguments, although i agree that a major foreign policy speech -- i don't think what a change things, but it would make him look like a more serious person in some ways. but i think that 47% tape was lethal. now, he has not lost, and barack obama is not a great campaigner, and when it is in practice, he is a pretty good debater. -- mitt is in practice, he is a pretty good debater. but because the 47% video was truly genuine, because it was him talking and not knowing he was taped, and played into every stereotype of barack obama saw to paint about him, it has had an enormous effect. >> evan? >> it should not be bad politics -- to be a bad politician should not necessarily heard you when

people hate politicians. but romney has not been able to turn that into our virtue. there is the reliability problem, and if there is what nina is talking about -- the film makes him look like he is writing off half the country. even though charles says he has to go substantive, and i wish he would do tax reform -- i don't think he is going to do that -- or find some way in the very end to convince people what he is, which the actress is, a decent human being -- she actually is, decent human being. >> romney said, but what my heart aches for the people i've seen and i want to help them." the voters are not getting that message. >> the problem that he has -- call it relate ability, call it whatever you want -- is compounded by the 47%. remember john kerry? "before i voted against the $87

million, i voted against it." that played into the negative narrative of john kerry being a flip-flop. away47% tape that won't go plays into the stereotype of romney as an aloof, detached, uncaring, and not able to show any empathy for people who are not in his social or economic bracket. >> from the politico piece, "rare is the moment where romney sings the praises of the working stiff, the which is pulling a double shift." mike huckabee told the jay leno, "romney reminds you of the guy who fired tear." -- fired you." >> romney is not going to be at the clinton who feels your pain. he is not a great politician. but one of the reasons there is the stereotypes - it did not come out of nowhere -- it came out of tens of millions of dollars of ads by the obama campaign about how he handled people at bain capital.

the essence of this is the other series of ads, which say that he wants to reduce taxes on the rich. romney has protested that that is not true, that he wants to reduce the tax rates on the rich. but he is committed in the reform to making sure that the share of taxes paid by the rich will not change. he it said that in interviews, but he never spelled out in a speech in a way that would get attention. the meme is that he wants to cut taxes on the rich, but the policy is that he would not. he has never actually stood up and explain it in a way that would have to command response and attention. >> there actually is away. -- a way. it is not too late. true tax reform has the effect of lowering tax rates for everybody, but all these special interest groups, precious loopholes and deductions -- i am

on the general public's side, i am against the interest groups in washington. if he proposes that, that is a true thing and that could work in the end. >> not to rob the obama people of credit for their advertising campaign, but let me remind you, these wounds have been self- inflicted. you want to get $10,000, rick perry? ann drives a couple of cadillacs. we're building a car elevator in our home. i like to fire people these were all voluntarily offered by mitt romney. >> and he has taken responsibility for that. >> the reason he does not lay out what you say is, among other things, there are studies that disputed, and people will say, you are going to take away mortgage tax deductions? suddenly everybody is up in arms. >> not necessarily true.

you can say that anybody over a certain amount can only deduct up to 2% of income -- >> now you are into the weeds. >> it is not the week, it is the facts. >> that's get into the weeds. >> are you making changes at the top? >> there are critics and cheerleaders -- >> no changes? >> well, every day there are improvements and new messages that come out. >> that is abc's david muir. summit said that the polls are too heavily skewed towards democrats. pollsters say that it is the site of a polling methods. >> peter prada and some of the evidence seems to be that romney -- the preponderance of evidence seems to be that romney is losing tra.

the rasmussen poll does not wait democrats more heavily -- >> robopolling. >> we have an expert here in mark shields. >> we are in conservative wine country now. it is a miracle that ronald reagan won 49 states without fox news, rush limbaugh, sean hannity, drudge report, with the network's dominant and "the washington post" and "the new york times" ascended. mitt romney is being undone by some conspiracy out of a 7- eleven in falls church? [laughter] >> there was no other reagan. was unique and a political

actor unlike any we have seen. putting mitt against him is unfair. he is not a great campaigner. i think he would be a great president, but he is not a great campaigner. evan is right. if the polls are 0.9% in one direction, there probably true. -- 90% in one direction, they are probably true. but you have to apply a formula by who is likely to show up. if you apply the model of the 2008 electorate, you get one result, highly pro-obama. but if you say the electorate will look more like 2004, then the race is even. i think that is the only argument that you could make. not a conspiracy, it is which way you model the electorate, how it breaks down on election day. >> we have a debate coming up, nina.

what is your advice to mitt romney? how to seat gain ascendancy >> - how does he gained ascendancy? >> he has to have a real moment. i am sure they are rehearsing many spontaneous moments. obama is not spending a lot of time prepping gas to run the country -- >> oh, yeah, he is running the jaay-ntry out of ohio -- z takes a lot of effort. run the country, my foot. >> as i said, obama is not a gifted debater the way he is a gifted or tour. there is a shot here. >> you are the debate coach, evan. what do you tell them? >> romney has one goal, to the

actual human being. it is not impossible. [laughter] >> "mitt, you are a human being." do you want to tell your grandchildren iran in 2012. i don't care if it is embracing simpson-bowles, whatever it is. he has got to give a sense of where the country goes from here. we don't care about where we are better off for years ago. america does not know where we are going and one of these guys has to give them that. >> wrong and wrong. my son has an axiom -- america alex the coolest candidate. obama is mr. cool. trip him up and you have a chance. >> this is not jealous that can

be contained. >> the and -- this is not a challenge that can be contained. >> united states is engaging in a policy of bullying. >> some are engaging the absurd notion that a nuclear-arm iraned -- nuclear-armed iran would stabilize the middle east. yeah, right. >> president obama is being criticized for having time to appear on "the view" but not meet with prime minister netanyahu. your question -- why didn't they come out with that right off the bat? >> the attack happened five days after the charlotte convention. democrats had to climb over and over again, spike the football 100 times over killing osama bin

laden. that was the one achievement, and the implication is that he was the guy who took care of al qaeda. you have the sacking at the u.s. embassy, the killing of the ambassador. the administration did not on that story to coexist with their theme and how great an anti terror policy obama had. they deceived the country, sending susan rice out on the sunday shows and attending that this was the outcrop -- outgrowth of a demonstration. everybody over the age of nine could see that it was premeditated. that is why it was suppressed until it could no longer be suppressed. >> i am not aware of the conspiracy that charles has his own strange and wonderful sources -- >> how do you explain her -- >> i am going to try to explain my moderator's question about

this. the problems were pulle -- the problem republicans have is that mitt romney has never c cracked the threshold of being a po it does punish the obama record, and there's no question that osama bin laden took the wind out of the cells of the republican candidates. it was an enormous credential for obama. but because romney chose paul ryan, he in no way filled out the emptiness of his own resume in foreign policy. for that reason, he has not been able to exploit what should be an advantage. >> can you explain why susan rice insisted that the attack on the embassy was the result of a demonstration? >> it is entirely possible -- may i -- >> i was asking mark. >> we like to hear from

everybody. >> if you were actually trying to hide something, you would not send somebody out. it would maintain radio silence -- >> "radio silence" when an ambassador is murdered? >> can i finish? it may take a little while to figure out what happened. we don't even know for sure. fbi does not know whether it there was a mob that was exploited or was it set up by al qaeda or some other group -- we think now it may be some other group -- or not? >> evan? >> i don't think there's any conspiracy here. i think it does take time to figure out who did it. i think they would dearly love to kill the person who did it and eventually they will. >> want to read a great book about a cagey chief executive? by evan thomas.

how would he handle the situation like this one? >> based on his presidency, he would have done everything he possibly could to avoid a war. but he would have been aggressive, used the cia and technology to stop iran from getting a bomb. and, this is important, he would have drawn the line somewhere and have been serious about it. he was an all-or-nothing guy could no half-mohrs. if you are going to fight a war, all the way. >> which, ironically, is what the israelis are asking obama to draw the line -- you had the biggest power in the world -- that is the only thing, netanyahu said at the u.s. this week, that could possibly change the course. but i just want to respond to my liberal palace over here. i cannot believe you guys are covering for the administration on the susan rice thing when they themselves said five days

later it was obviously a terror attack, everybody could see it. why with the administration pretend it was the demonstration? >> it would not be a good plan -- >> it is a good plan because the longer you draw it out, the less the media and the country will care about it. he sees the issue right away. it worked? to talk about -- >> we're talking about it. >> the pbs section of the show -- >> now you are insulting the audience. >> the 9 people in the world who care about the stuff. >> remember, it took quite a while to figure out exactly what had happened, and we still may not know everything, in 9/11. these guys were trained, with

intelligence had fallen apart. it took us a very long time realize even who these people were. some of the original reports were wrong. >> "deception," the word charles used. >> charles has conspiracy. pretty lousy one, if you are contradicted within hours. the think tank commandos and gucci guerrillas populated city. it reminds me of the genius of norman schwarzkopf, another army general who did lead the troops into a successful venture and try and in the persian gulf war -- triumphed in the persian gulf war. he was getting all this praise from fawning flatteries. he said, no, it does not take courage to order men into

battle. it takes courage to go into battle. what we're talking about -- >> no, we are -- the israelis are not asking the u.s. to go to war. they are simply saying that if you are not interested in doing this, and we understand that, let us fight our own war because of our lives are at stake. >> i heard a different speech than you did. >> no, netanyahu said explicitly that great powers don't have a moral right if they will draw a red line of giving israel the red light. -- if they won't draw a red line of giving israel the red light. are you denying that the administration put enormous pressure on israel to do nothing? >> we have agreements with them, and then there's of retaliation -- >> they have no agreements -- we have no agreements of that sort.

>> when the president said this week, if romney is suggesting we should start another war, he should say so be it was that a cheap shot? >> no. romney uses a lot of bellicose rhetoric, and it is irresponsible, and obama was calling him on it. >> where do we go from here on foreign policy? we will not hear about it until the last debate. >> way out of our control. >> it looks like israel is not going to bomb iran on his clock. >> and that was the message of the speech at the un. netanyahu spoke of the spring and summer of next year as the red line. earlier in the year, our own secretary of defense said that israel would like the attack in april, may, or june. it is giving obama a kind of concession, saying we can wait a little more, but not that much

more. >> iraq and afghanistan have worked out so damn well, why not iran? >> now the real news. the nfl referees have gone back to work. >> simultaneous to are they commit to? >> touchdown. >> i have not seen anything like that in all my years of football. >> who ever thought that fans would be cheering nfl referees? what a country. >> is a great country, and any group -- the referees who were kept out by the shortsightedness and selfishness and greed of the owners, and their lack the commissioner, mr. goodell -- alckey commissioner, mr. goodell, have cheering for them scott walker, the union-busting governor of wisconsin, and paul ryan, the union-busting vice presidential nominee -- he has become a labor activist spirit

what a great country. >> strong note to follow, charles. >> you can always leave it to mark to find a partisan and will to anything. it was a lousy call it is just football. who cares? >> you watch this, and the amazing national interest in this, but lurking in the background is this existential threat to football, these head injuries. a billion dollar thing as the evidence mounts an ounce announced that football is bad for your brain. when is the day of reckoning coming? >> that is why need to freeze. >> that is exactly what you need referees. but they cannot do it all. there is a gladiator feel to it, when you look at how hard the hits are. it is really at the cost of

these individuals' futures. >> it keeps us from hitting each other on the head. see you next week.

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